Relay nodes in communication systems may be useful in handling capacity issues, such as cell edge performance. Communication system relaying functions may include repeater like functionality and also demodulating, decoding, and error correction functionality. By performing such functions in an intermediate role, a relay node may facilitate communication between a wireless transmit/receive device (WTRU, or a “user equipment” UE) and a base station, potentially with a reduced signal to noise ratio.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) capable communication systems may support data rates up to 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink, for example. Improvements in downlink rates may be accomplished with carrier aggregation, among other techniques. Carrier aggregation may support, for example, flexible bandwidth assignments up to 100 MHz. Carriers may be known as component carriers in some LTE systems. For example, a single contiguous downlink (DL) 40 MHz aggregation of multiple component carriers may be paired with a single 15 MHz uplink (UL) carrier.